Heartbreak for Ireland as Wales claim place at Euro 2025
HEARTBREAK: Katie McCabe and Denise O'Sullivan after the defeat. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Whereas Eileen Gleeson branded Aviva Stadium the soul of her team, it was lifeless by the end.
Ireland won’t be going to a second successive tournament and they can’t complain either, conceding twice after half-time before managing a late reprieve to generate a stoppage time stampede.
Whether Gleeson gets the opportunity of taking Ireland into next year’s Nations League and the subsequent qualifiers for the 2027 World Cup is a moot. She’s out of contract and also out of excuses.
Although the breakthrough was dubious, arriving through a VAR-adjudged handball by Anna Patten five minutes after the restart, they were completely exposed for the second 17 minutes later.
Megan Campbell’s call from the bench to execute her catapult throw-ins created a threat Ireland lacked earlier in the second half. All that havoc eventually led to Patten atoning for her slip in the run-up to the second goal by cutting the arrears with a header at the second attempt.
Her central-defensive companion Caitlin Hayes thought she’d forced extra-time from a similar skirmish but another goal-line technology concluded the clearance was off the line, rather than behind it.
Following Friday’s cagey first leg 1-1 draw in Cardiff, the spotlight was on Ireland to seize the initiative on home soil. They were the seeded team, after all.
Eileen Gleeson’s claim on the favourites status after that 90 minutes was a rare glimpse of opinion from the guarded manager, perhaps a subtle contribution to the mindgames her Welsh counterpart Rhian Wilkinson was eager to engineer.
Translating that talk into actions required a brave selection but the introduction of just one player, defensive midfielder Jessie Stapleton, from the away leg underwhelmed on the teamsheet. Wales plumped for two, one of whom opened the scoring.
Gleeson’s refusal to respond to Wilkinson’s constant denigration of Ireland as a physical outfit could be construed as an exercise in optics, for she made no effort to conduct the customary handshakes.
There was little choice but to engage when she turned around following the national anthems to find her nemesis approaching her technical area with an outstretched palm.
This would ultimately be a game settled on the pitch and by the end of the first half Ireland were fortunate to still have their full complement on it.
Worse still was the fact their captain was the risk balancing on the tightrope. Katie McCabe’s propensity for bookings with Arsenal has become something of a parody in England but this was serious, her caution for a wild lunge on 18 minutes the forerunner for another suspect challenge she was lucky to escape without a second yellow.
Those incidents accounted for the lowlights of an otherwise promising opening half for the hosts.
McCabe’s giddiness during his pre-match press conference continued into proceedings, as she was anxious to whip the crowd into a frenzy seconds before Ireland tipped off.
Her punt upfield may have fed the stereotype Wilkinson highlighted but it forced the first two corners inside the opening three minutes.
Their ploy of targeting Olivia Clark in the Welsh goal yielded an equaliser in Cardiff but it would be a while before they tested her, either under the high ball or through long shots.
When Heather Payne timed her run onto the wrong side of Gemma Evans, both the Liverpool defender and herself fell to the ground in a heap. No penalty, stressed the Spanish official.
Ireland would have to find their range from outside the box, yet not before McCabe’s frustrations at losing the ball manifested in catching Josephine Green. Unsurprisingly, the former Gunner was not inclined to accept the apologetic hand of conciliation.
Midway through the half, Ireland eventually found their stride. Once Kyra Carusa laid the ball off to Denise O’Sullivan 25 yards out, the Corkwoman only had the posts in her sight. She opened up her body to unleash a right-footer which left Clark stationary and the upright trembling.
Moments later, McCabe was next to try a long ranger. Offered space McCabe in a central area, she slipped Lily Woodham before arrowing a scud with her trusty left foot a yard wide.
Next to go close was Payne on the half hour, gobbling up the rebound off Julie-Ann Russell’s shot. Despite her best efforts to contort six yards out, she was unable to wrap her foot around the ball to avoid it skewing wide.
From that point until the break, though, Wales made waves. It fell in their favour when Littlejohn tripped Hannah Cain on the edge of the box, allowing Woodham to rifle a free-kick. That one was turned around the post by Courtney Brosnan, as Rhiannon Roberts’ low attempt from the resulting corner.
Niamh Fahey broke the flow with a snapshot from 30 yards which whizzed wide but the main relief was avoiding their skipper entering the dressing-room early. A fussier referee than Marta Huerta De Aza would have brandished a booking for her clash with Rachel Rowe.
Celtic spirit was alive and well in the second half but only from the visitors, who appealed once a cross glanced off the upper arm of Patten. Cain awaited Brosnan’s move to the left before rolling the penalty into the empty net.
Chasing an equaliser shouldn’t entitle a team to abandon their shape and moments after Cain almost nicked a second, Ireland were sprung on the break – substitute Carrie Jones placing the ball into the left corner for a deficit Ireland couldn’t overturn.
C Brosnan; H Payne (I Atkinson 84), C Hayes, N Fahey (M Campbell 72), A Patten, K McCabe: D O’Sullivan, R Littlejohn (M Connolly 73), J Stapleton,; JA Russell (L Kiernan 72), K Carusa (A Larkin 84).
O Clark; R Roberts, H Ladd, G Evans; J Green, A James, A Griffiths (E Powell 82), L Woodham (C Holland 72); J Fishlock (C Jones 63), R Rowe; H Cain (F Morgan 64).
Marta Huerta De Aza (Spain).
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